LOS ANGELES – The loss of your two best players is enough to make any coach cry, but on Wednesday before the Clippers pivotal Game 5 against the Portland Trail Blazers, Doc Rivers' eyes welled up when asked a poignant question.
In the middle of his pregame press conference with the media, Rivers was asked by a reporter who he leans on to get through tough times – vis a vis losing Blake Griffin and Chris Paul – Rivers reflected and his answer pulled on our heart strings.
"I don't know," he said sullenly as his eyes filled with water. The memories came flooding back and he couldn't fight back the tears any longer, he put a hand to his face to stop the tears from rolling down and finally looked up to meet the gaze of the staring members of the media before him.
"Brad made me think about my mom," he finally said. "That would have been the person."
Rivers' mother, Bettye Rivers, died last June in Maywood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago where Rivers grew up and went to high school.
After the answer, the media was too teary-eyed themselves to ask any further questions and Rivers quietly got up and walked out of the room. Afterwards, various members of the media stepped outside to call their own mothers and tell them how much they love them.
Courtesy of Arash Markazi, the video of Rivers response is below.
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Doc Rivers gets emotional when talking about his mother, Bettye, who passed away last year. pic.twitter.com/LQZmgKXjM8 — Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) April 28, 2016
